


Water without gravity

by Costumebleh



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Pidge binds and wears a packer, Platonic Relationships, Rewriting some things from canon, Romantic Fluff, Tbh idk if it's going to be romantic at all but we'll see, mermaid au, well more like merman AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-07-29 02:24:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7666684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Costumebleh/pseuds/Costumebleh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For someone with about as big a secret as secrets can go, it gets a little extra difficult when Pidge suddenly has to add a little more onto the pile; if a merman the three times the size of a normal person can be considered little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First discovery

Pidge never personally liked being on the longboats that they used on their trips across eons of ocean. Neither did she care particularly about the crew that went about the different parts of the ship, always so busy and never a moment to breathe when they went on excavations.

Less did she want to stand by the side of the helm, helping Hunk keep the hair out of his face as seasickness struck once again. Poor guy.

Even if Pidge would occasionally tease, and, accompanied by her other group member Lance, pull odd pranks on the loving giant, she only felt pity for Hunk once the first couple of days had gone by. Those were the days where Hunk would be on a sleep-eat-puke cycle and either Lance or Pidge would stick by his side in case of the last one.

Though Pidge would always let Lance take care of Hunk at nighttime, where she often either sat and programmed on some of her underwater robots or tried to hack into the marina technology, - which may and may not be related to the whole reason why she was out in the middle of the ocean in the first place, posing as a boy and desperately trying to figure out why her family was gone.

Technically, Pidge was not actually permitted to be anywhere near a body of water that was any bigger than a swimming pool. But if you should try and specify anything, it was actually Katie Holt that had received a court-martial ban from any coastlines within the next decade. Not Pidge. Not the young marine biologist that had achieved such level of acknowledgement that they and their group had been permitted to go on solo-trips.

Which, because of Pidge’s never-ending search for ship-wrecks they ended up going on far too often than what might be healthy for pitiful Hunk.

Pidge does feel a bit bad for that. But none of Lance nor Pidge’s attempts at coercing the much larger boy to sit out on a trip has been successful and so, they’ve instead taken it upon them to care for their much larger companion.

Even if they occasionally have to team up and attempt to drag the half-conscious boy away from the railing.

Right at the very moment, Pidge desperately hoped that Hunk would be able to make the trip back to their room. With Lance sleeping, there were no extra help to be found because when Lance slept, he _slept_.

Luckily, it seemed that Hunk was still alright, if a bit groggy from his loss of dinner deposited into the ocean.

As they strolled back to their room, Pidge rubbed soothing circles into Hunks back. “You gonna be ok there big guy?”

“Just peachy,” Hunk muttered, pressing the back of his hand against his mouth. “Why’s always got to be me?”

Pidge didn’t really have an answer, nor a witty reply. They’ve been running on a lot of tripe and it was still a big mystery for everyone as to why Hunk had such a bad aptitude to being on any kind of moving vehicle.

Nevertheless, Hunk was irreplaceable on the team. It was thanks to his tech that they’ve been able to produce such grand results within these past few months. Hunk was the one to originally design and figure out the true potential of the underwater masks that they used when scouring wrecks.

He was also like a fish in water, to most people’s imminent surprise. Almost like he might've been distantly related to the rare species of merpeople, with the way he just ploughed through any and all currents without much trouble.

Finally reaching their minimalistic quarters, Pidge bid Hunk goodnight as she returned to the computer on the small desk to tinker away, furthering her progress with her little video robot that she, as a loving creator, had nicknamed ‘Rover’.

Coded instructions were well and all, but to manage to keep the small camera nearby without holding it herself was proving to be a challenge. Pidge doesn’t need the further weight to tire her out, and in all honesty, it'll be a pain if she can’t just install all the needed tech into the drone. Vocal instructions had to be integrated into the system too, one that can also respond and act in need for what sort of situation the team might land themselves in.

Eventually, Pidge passed out in front of the screen, with the download of the interface to the small robot almost done.

Without a doubt, waking up was always the worst, topping all other experiences. Considering Pidge had a tendency to work herself into the ground before actually managing to sleep at all, the exhaustion eventually helped keeping any harsh nightmares at bay and thus, the tradition of falling asleep with her face in the keyboard was set.

Though, while waking up by herself was bad, waking up with bloody Lancy-tansy-mchandsy jabbing a _boney elbow into her side_ was bordering to agonizing.

“Rise and shine Pidge, we’ve got a long day ahead of us!” No wait, scratch that. It wasn’t the elbow that was the worst. It was the pleasant surprise of having Lance’s squeaky voice speak _right by Pidge’s ear_.

Oh Lance, always one to really work up her mood.  

Yawning, Pidge stretched and sat up straight on the rather uncomfortable chair, hearing her back and neck crack several times. Man, she really hated waking.

Another unappreciated connection with her ribs made her startle, shooting a grumpy look in the direction of her two friends. “What’s the rush? You’re usually not this annoying before noon.”

Lance, the ever flamboyant showoff just takes a dramatic pose. “Alas, Pidge, my friend. It is actually past noon and I’ve been on Hunk-duty all morning.”

“Sorry.” Came the tepid addition from the other boy. Hunk’s slumped figure displaying complete guilt. “I just can’t _not_ eat food to avoid this, it only makes it worse.”

Registering Hunk’s despair, Lance dropped the pose and instead patted him reassuringly on his shoulder. “It’s not your fault Hunk. Hopefully we can spend most of the day in the water, where you can enjoy your meals a little better.”

A small; “oh good” sounded from the larger boy. Seemingly still a little woozy.

While rubbing the last bit of sleep out of her eyes, Pidge inspected the screen of the computer. It seemed like the rest of the downloading process finished during her nap. Lucky. They should be all ready for the upcoming dive then.

As Pidge inspected and absentmindedly listened to the comments from her team, with the occasionally committal sound from her side. She suddenly found herself getting picked up by her arms, a very non-Pidge-like sound escaping her as Hunk dragged her along.

“You’re so skinny Pidge, like a kitten.” Hunk commented as he effortlessly kept her airborne. “We’re all eating something now, if I can wait for technology then you can too.”

Hissing and attempting to fight out of his grip, Pidge’s efforts proved futile as they entered the small cafeteria. With Lance gesturing for Hunk to drop his luggage onto one of the benches, he sauntered over to coax some food out of the working personnel there. It didn’t take long before Hunk joined him, about as eager as anyone who’s just won a Nobel prize at the prospect of him being able to keep the food in his belly long enough for it to settle.

Pidge, still slightly groggy. Found herself looking forward to today and the upcoming days and the results they would gather. Especially since she would be able to scour the area by herself to gather samples of the underwater flora.

Which may and may not be a position where several cruisers had disappeared by. But who’s going to know when they’re all underwater? None, that’s who.

So, while Lance and Hunk were chattering away, Pidge was unceremoniously pushing the veggies around their plate, not really feeling any appetite reeling up to motivate her enough to take a bite. Though, she doesn’t get away with only eating a little. Since Hunk - the ever observant friend - notices the lack of organic intake from Pidge’s side and almost forces a handful of carrots down her throat.

Which, in all honesty, is something that Pidge _does not_ appreciate at all.

Finally, she’s been able to chew down enough to satisfy her fussing teammates and they all gather to inform the captain of the necessary arrangements. While they were the only group on the ship that would be going deep-sea diving, they weren’t the only ones with a purpose here. While waiting, the ship would start fishing and maybe seek out some nearby islands to rest at and charter in on their maps.

Usually the group would only go on a small boat out for day-long trips, but since they needed to go out that much further, the bigger ship was needed. As were the time spent under the surface. They didn’t often receive the sponsorship for such, and Pidge planned to make the most of it.

After getting the green light from the captain, Pidge returned to her rooms to don the gear needed. Including; a wetsuit that luckily permitted her binder to be worn under, as well as her packer, since _honestly_ with how nosy Hunk always was and with the close skinship the other two applied on an almost daily basis. All of it was rather desperately needed.

Then, with just squeezing the green-screened mask down over her head and carrying her flippers and Rover with her, she went out to the deck where the two others eagerly waited. Within the blessings of some miracle, Hunk looked a little better than this morning, despite having just eaten. Lance, the ever over-eager one, was struggling with getting one of his flippers on his feet, jumping around comically on one leg.

Pidge, being the _of course_ most supportive of Lance’s antics, sneaks around his back to lightly kick the shin of his pivoting leg. All in good friendship of course.

With Lance flailing and falling onto the flooring of the deck, Pidge just shot an enthusiastic greeting over her shoulder as she bolted for the small ladder that would help her get into the water. Though, as she had to put on her flippers first, Lance nabbed the chance at payback by shoving her into the water the minute her focus shifted.

The slash following was loud, accompanied by the startled sound escaping Pidge the moment she felt that she wasn't on the boat anymore. 

One drone, a flipper, and a very disgruntled Pidge resurfaced from the rather still body of saltwater. “Oh you watch yourself Lance, you’ve just gained an enemy!” Splashing water everywhere when she had to maneuver with only one flipper on.

Luckily, she managed to snatch the second one before it floated too far away.

Hearing the laughter of both her teammates on the deck. Pidge dove under the edge of water and instead set to find Rover. Who, when not really turned on, just settled with floating passively on top of the water. Gripping the underside of the metal, her fingers searched for and found the button to press in under the water-resistant covering of the drone.

“Come on Rover, we’ve got some exploring to do!” Pidge then continued further under the surface, the small camera activating and obeying the command easily, the small propels on the back and sides helping it move towards its creator.

Pidge picked up a pace that would leave her teammates to eat her metaphorical dust and decided that the two could take care of themselves today. Though there was only so much energy a short nap on the wrong side of midnight could restore and Pidge slowly felt the strain of going at such a high pace. Even Rover seemed to have some problems with keeping up and she then decided to see what might be nearby.

The water, as ever dark, showed little in the limited level of sight that Pidge’s eyes possessed. Luckily the mask provided some help with the issue, having lights on each side.

Fiddling slightly with the button needed, Pidge believed that she managed to spot the shape of something, moving at the edge of her line of sight. Though when she managed to turn on the lights, there was nothing.

Weird.

Well, Pidge had a mission. So no probable trick of the fuzziness in the water should serve as a distraction. She did hope that it wasn’t anything aggressive. Calling for her little companion, she made an attempt at nose-diving deeper into the deep darkness of the ocean. Only the sound of the water whooshing by and the slight noise from Rover’s propellers keeping her aware of making progress at all.

With no less awe than any other time, Pidge watched the flora and towers of corals start to appear from the top of what looks like an ancient ravine. Even without the personal goal in mind there was no doubt that this was what Pidge wanted to devote her life to doing.

A stream of odd-looking fish passed by in front of her, with a couple actually accidentally colliding in their haste to follow the rest. A lighthearted laugh escapes from Pidge without prompting, an odd giddiness surging through her body.

“Well then Rover, let’s see if there’s any ships nearby.” Pidge prompted at the little robot, expecting no real reply; the sound of her own voice helping her focus on the endgoal. With anything that looked like something new for the records she just pointed for Rover to focus onto it for a few seconds, before moving forward once more.

Again, there was something just out of the small cone of light. Pidge was sure of it now. But when they turned, there was nothing.

The awe from the beauty of the place was suddenly replaced with a rather harsh realization that none of her teammates were reachable – if something decided that she would be a delicious little scrap of food, there was no help to be found.

Well shit.

With her hands slightly shaking, she grasped the small spear-gun that was strapped to her hip. The invention was one of Hunk’s, and mostly only served the role of helping Pidge get to places where there were strong currents. Though the tip of it was sharp enough to cut skin, the shot itself didn’t hold much power and took a while to reel itself in if she missed.

The gun in hand, Pidge really, _really_ hoped that the feeling of being watched was something she was imaging.

Moving forward slightly and cautiously trying to keep an eye out for anything that might be approaching. Whereas it seemed that, besides from a few curious fish and a disgruntled eel, there was none that seemed to be paying the small diver any attention. 

Permitting herself to breathe a small sigh of relief while closing her eyes and counting to ten, Pidge really cursed her ability to overanalyze things. It might’ve just been a small shark, or maybe another group of fish.

Rounding the numbers down to zero and opening her eyes, there’s something way-too-big-to-be-safe-being-near moving closer at a rapid rate.

Forget about overanalyzing, her instincts had been _on fucking point_.

With the panic settling in Pidge’s veins, she only just barely managed to raise her gun through the dense water to try and aim. But the moment her finger grazed the trigger, a strong current hit her from the side and the shot goes wide off the mark.

The next moment, a large hand had grasped onto Pidge’s wrist. Keeping the gun away from whoever was also clamping a hand onto her throat.

Gasping, despite the grip not being tense enough to cut off her air. Pidge was faced with something that, quite honestly, was hard to comprehend.

The upper body was muscular, like a real man’s. Sharp eyes interlocked with Pidge’s as a single white lock of hair drifted lazily around in the current from his forehead. The, she couldn’t actually believe that she was meeting one in real life – merman used the strength of the fin and lower body of a killer whale to keep them both still.

And, as Pidge tried to get a better look, she noticed from the edge of her vision that there were gills protruding from the neck of the merman and that some _very_ pronounced canines peeked out from between the lips of the creature.

No, not creature. Never just a creature like an eel or a shark. Merpeople were sentient, perhaps even more than humans to some degree that philosophers had discussed over many years. But the bottom line was that they are too damn hard to locate. Maybe only a handful had been found in the past decade, with even less getting captured.

They never survived for long without freedom.

And now, to the apparent amusement of some higher power, Pidge was caught by one of them. Talk about a turnover.

But a few seconds after their eyes met, a spark of something – maybe recognition, became visible in his eyes. A deep solemn voice carrying without trouble through the water, “Matt?”

It took a moment for the word to settle, then the disbelief settled through Pidge’s body, making it feel like her blood froze.

No way.

Why does something that is seen as one of _the real natural wonders of the world_ know that name? A harsh strike of fear struck Pidge’s gut at the realization; if there is a merperson that knows that name, then they might’ve gotten involved in illegal trafficking.

The thought makes Pidge stiffen, tears of surprise and fear welling up in her eyes.

Her free hand came up to cover her eyes, though she realized that it was a futile effort with the mask still enveloping her head. A chocked sob escaped instead, and the sound slowly made all hostility disappear from the merman’s body.

“Y-you can’t- _How_ … How do you know my brother’s name?” Pidge’s voice was muffled slightly through the mask, “He- _how_?” the last addition was barely audible, another sob raking through her body and it took all of her willpower not to outright cry because ‘there’s a merman right in front’ and ‘there’s no fucking way to get tears out of the mask underwater.’

A look of guilt appears on the face of the merman, loosening his hold on Pidge’s neck he also gently pried the gun out of their hand. “I’m sorry.”

“Why- Why are you sorry?” The fear was slowly starting to seep over into anger, frustration, “How come you know Matt? What happened to them?”

Rubbing the short hairs at his nape, the merman could only supply with a heartbreaking “I don’t know.”

Alright, perhaps a bit of clarification was in order. As well as a few minutes of Pidge attempting to gather her scattered wits. “Alright.” Not pressing the issue further was probably the hardest thing ever, but Pidge managed not to start raining questions down on him, so that was some accomplishment.

Taking a few deep breaths, she managed to somewhat calm her nerves. A stubborn look dominating her features as her nerves settled.

Turning to her small camera, she only barked a single order. “Rover, Turn off.” To which the small drone immediately obeyed, the glowing lights on the sides flickering and turning black. When the little robot then began to drop, Pidge gingerly caught it, cradling it close to their chest.

“Alright,” If she could, Pidge would’ve been pinching her nose or fiddle with her glasses, _something_ to express her internal conflict. Instead, she had to be satisfied with cradling the small drone, fingers following the miniscule lines of the light-up patterns. She felt a little like a broken record, only repeating the same word again and again. “Alright, first things first. Who are you?”

“I’m Shiro.” The merman – Shiro replied, still looking a little worried. But Pidge didn’t have time for pity.

“Okay,” Pidge breathes out, “Hey Shiro, I’m Pidge.”

A half-awkward silence hung between them for a moment, Pidge’s thought churning too quickly to fully process. Only the scarce support of the fact that besides from actually meeting something that was close to legendary, that also seemed to maybe know something about the disappearance of her brother and father seemed to help quell the need to scream from frustration.

Well, first things first. Reaching out towards Shiro with the hand that wasn’t occupied with holding Rover, “I would like my spear gun back Shiro.” And added with an afterthought, “I promise I won’t shoot it.”

The merman hesitated for a second, shifting the small gun in his hands for a second before eventually giving in. Again, as Pidge noticed the difference in their size with how small the gun looked in his hands, and when she actually took a closer look at him, there was a certain trait that startled her more than his existence in itself.

Scars.

There were scars everywhere on his body. From the singular one that Pidge could see creeping across the bridge of his nose, crisscrossing all the way down to his fins. Squinting, Pidge grabbed onto the arm that was still holding out the gun, noticing that it was different from the rest of the merman. Instead of giving skin, what met Pidge’s fingers was cold and grooved metal.

“You…” Pidge couldn’t really summon the words, feeling them stick to the back of their throat. “What happened to you?” Fingers gently tracing the many scratches etched into the metal as she pulled herself closer to his larger frame. Sight limited by the small cones of light couldn’t really give a real impression of his dire some of the wounds must’ve been, but there was a creeping suspicion in the back of Pidge’s mind that it was not just other underwater creatures that has caused the insistent scarring. Plus, the replacement of the arm was clearly very high-tech.

Passively permitting Pidge’s touch to linger on the prosthetic arm connected just under his shoulder, Shiro was apparently just as confused with what to do in this situation. Though at the question he heaved a sigh – it sounded a little odd through gills rather than lungs, but Pidge caught onto the meaning behind it. “It’s… a long story.”

Moving herself away from the merman, Pidge couldn’t gather their line of thought to do much more than mutter, “Tonight,” and with the confused look he then shot her she added “I’ll come again tonight. We can talk more then.”

Their eyes met, stubborn browns filled with a stone-set resolution and doubtful blacks interlocking. It didn’t take long before Shiro let out another awkward sigh, scratching the back of his neck. “Alright. This is all a… a little fast, but alright. I’ll find you though so don’t worry about trying to figure out where I am.”

Nodding, Pidge removed her eyes from his, strapping the gun back to her hip and pressing the button to turn on Rover. With a confirming squeak, the drone lit up and started floating from Pidge’s hands. Fiddling shortly, she finally managed to squeak out a quick “Bye.” Before swimming off in the direction Rover was moving.

Pidge felt her thoughts thunder about in her skull, too much had just happened to fully comprehend without a full night’s sleep. But rest would have to wait, meeting up with the others was first priority and then figuring out how to get away from her nosy teammates with the needed gear at night was secondary.

After that, it would hopefully work out somehow.

Never in any of her scenarios of finding her family, did she think that there would be a living and – relatively, breathing merman involved.


	2. Second Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge was maybe just a tiny bit hesitant about diving down into the dark, deep, dangerous sea alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohhhkay, sorry for the long wait. I've started school again and I've already pushed a few probably-more-important things aside to finish this up so that you know that I'm not dead or drowning completely in homework (only partially)
> 
> But anyways, leave a comment if there's anything you like and I'll try to get back to you! Love all of you!!

Thoughts were thundering in Pidge’s ears as she approached the spot where the boat was parked idly at the surface. Instinctively the direction she’d gone in had been slightly off west from its position, but since they’d been pushed around a little by the encounter with Shiro, it took a little longer than usual to find the ship.

Nevertheless, the looming shape of the hull started to appear above Pidge’s head, permitting the biologist to release a slight sigh of relief. Even with the knowledge that there was almost no chance of fully getting lost within the scheduled area, the sea could sometimes seem unbelievably vast in Pidge’s eyes. The never ending stretches of ocean water only broken near the surface by the sun’s rays, could seem infinite.

Alas, now that Pidge had arrived back by the ship, she also noticed the shapes of her two teammates.

Huh? What were they doing?

Moving her flippers to get her closer, Pidge didn’t fail to notice the slight streak of blood that wound itself from Lance’s calf, floating up through the water and to pooling somewhere near the surface. Now that they were closer, Pidge also noticed that the duo wasn’t fighting, but more like Hunk was in a panic to put pressure on the wound and that Lance was less than inclined to let him.

When Lance then shimmied away from Hunk’s grasp with all the grace of a one-finned dugong, Pidge took the chance to wrap her arms around his middle. “Gotcha’”

Letting out a very high-pitched squeak, Lance froze in Pidge’s grip for a second before he managed to decrypt the source of the voice.

“Pidge!” He huffed out. Trying to pry her arms of his middle. “You scared the _Quiznak_ out of me!”

Which in response, Pidge just tsk’ed “Payback from earlier.” But was inclined to letting go, that gash seemed rather deep when close. “Why are you resisting? You’re just gonna lose more blood.”

“It’s no big deal!” squeaked Lance, offended.

“Dude, you’re losing like, a liter of blood just while we’re standing here – well swimming.” Pidge added and then proceeded to link her legs with his, immobilizing the lanky boy. He could be as sleek as an eel sometimes, so better stop him before he did something to worsen his wound.

Within the next second, Hunk was by their side. “I told you so Lance, I said we shouldn’t have separated once we got to that reef. My stomach was feeling funny the entire time and I _knew_ it wasn’t the double servings.” Though his voice resounded with mirth, his fingers were gentle while expertly wrapping a strip of cloth around Lance’s leg.

“How should I know that there would be a fish that would literally try and _chop my leg off_?” Lance murmured and winced as Hunk applied pressure to the wound, checking that he’d stopped most of the bleeding.

Releasing Lance from her octopus-hold, Pidge swam over to grasp Hunk’s shoulder. “You did good big guy.”

Teary-eyed, Hunk nodded in reply and then forced out a cough. “We should probably get back to the ship.”

“Yeah,” Pidge responded, looking around and then gesturing for Rover to follow. “Good idea.”

While the trio swam upwards, aiming to find the ladder that led them up and back onto the deck. Supporting Lance from one side – despite his eager disapproval, Pidge let her thoughts wander as everything she had to do was swimming upwards and tune out the sound of Lance’s burdened breath.

And gosh, did they wander.

First of all, she called herself six different kinds of idiot, having been as pushy and difficult to Shiro. She hadn’t even given him the time to process the fact that he hadn’t had the older one of the Holt siblings in front of him, but the younger. How the heck could she have been an even bigger _ass?_

Secondly, because despite her idiocy towards the merman, she’d at least managed to make a deal about meeting up tonight. So there would have to be a plan laid out for her perfect – albeit temporary, escape back into the sea. At night.

Ok, there was maybe a fifty versus fifty percent chance, that if Shiro didn’t show. She would be eaten by a giant squid or something equally terrifying. (that was the fear talking, Pidge pretended not to listen to that.)

Actually, with the wounded teammate at her side, there was a guaranteed chance that there was something out there with the ability to make her into a nice little shish-kebab. If anything, while bites and getting poisoned by the stingers from their subjects, marine biologists should be fairly safe from getting chopped into gourmet meat. Yikes.

The third thing came midways through the fear-ridden rambling going on inside Pidge’s head. That, if it hadn’t been an outcropping that Lance had accidentally swam into (which was close to impossible, Lance was too careful about stuff like this and had the ability to swim like a dolphin) it could only be the possibility of another- _another merperson_ being around, and a hostile one at that.

Oh dang, Pidge really hoped that Shiro would stick to their promise.

Though the rambling line of thoughts came to an end with Hunk grasping onto the lowermost ladder, all the while he had hoisted Lance up over his shoulder. Whereas Lance hadn’t even let out much of a protest at the abuse from the larger boy.

He must’ve lost more blood than they thought.

Waiting until Hunk had dragged the two of them up onto deck, Pidge followed their example and climbed up the slippery row of metal rods.

Grabbing Rover from the surface of the water on the way up, Pidge found that it was a bit more difficult to climb with one hand, and considered adding a sort of sling onto her suit to put Rover in. Food for thought.

Half-tumbling onto the wooden surface, she found that the others were already seeing to Lance. One of the sailors wrapping a firmer bandage around his leg and attempting to feed the boy some tablets to help him restore some of the lost blood.

Pidge winced in sympathy, everyone including Lance hated pills of any kind. Even with the water to help him get them down, he always felt queasy for hours afterwards. Poor guy.

Well, since everything was temporarily solved, guess she could sit back and relax for a while until night fell.

Which honestly – because Pidge and relaxing wasn’t exactly peas in a pod, meant that the smaller biologist would be spending their time coding or something the like.

Worked like a well-oiled machine, hah,  _sarcasm_.

More like a rustbucket that had seen too much and spent an excessive amount of time near salt-water, since most of the time Pidge was, instead of actually getting some work done, went through imaginary scenarios of the conversation that was coming up and ended up without getting a single line of coding or any sort of wiring on Rover done that night.

To think that it only took the appearance of a legendary creature to rattle her mind to such and extend.

Kidding.

Finally, most of the crew returned to their bunks and hammocks. Lance had been tucked in with aplenty of blankets to keep out the night-chill, knocked out by the painkillers. Hunk was similarly out, having forced himself to down some medicine for seasickness that guaranteed his body relieved the stress, though it came with the side-effect that he’d be worse for wear most of the morning. But despite Pidge’s insistence, he told them that he didn’t want to disturb them by having to hurl.

She hadn’t liked the stressed look in Hunk’s eyes.

But since there wouldn’t be any of her crewmembers to keep an eye on her, Pidge supposed that it was for the best.

Now, creeping along the shadows of the inventory of the ship, past boxes and large containers. Pidge neared the side of the ship that she knew was fully unsupervised. It had been hard to get her hands on the air-producing helmet, and had to abandon the thought of also getting her hands on her wetsuit. Instead, she was wearing a tank top and shorts.

Luckily, the waters wouldn't be too cold even at night.

Slipping the helmet over her unruly hair, she took a moment for it to turn on, double-checking that everything was A-Okay. It seemed alright, if rather somewhat of a rather pathetic situation, stuck with only the mask as the only reliable source of light and protection against well- _anything_.

And without further ado, she swung her form over the side of the ship. Hanging by her fingers, she judged the water’s surface to be a good couple of meters underneath where her toes were clinging to the small crevices between the welded plating of the ship.

Even with the slight chill of fright in her stomach, she didn’t let herself think. Thinking led to hesitation.

Letting go with her fingers, she pushed off the side of the ship and made a head-dive into the emptiness.

The splash wasn’t registered by the drowsy captain, having just seen the form of an orca break the waves. Captured by the slight beauty reflected in the light’s from the ship’s deck, he sighed, drawing an intake of smoke as he simply admired nature.

Beneath the water’s surface, Pidge was fumbling to get the lights of her helmet turned on. The water had been colder than expected, her fingers uncooperative as their general temperature fell.

Finally, her stiff fingers managed to press the needed button. A slight cone of light shining through the darkened waters. Looking up, Pidge had no idea how far she was from the surface, everything only being swept in the cloak of darkness that had fallen upon everything.

“Shiro?” She murmured through the large body of water. Not truly expecting a reply.

A slight reel of panic went through her. Stupid. Stupid. _Stupid._ How would she get back onto the boat? What if Shiro had abandoned the idea of conversing with a human? What if something larger decided that she would be a nice light snack?

Rambling through her head, Pidge failed to notice the other presence nearby. Though she let out a startled sound when Shiro’s hand clasped down onto her shoulder.

As she turned to face the merman, Pidge could almost hear her teeth clatter from the surprise. “Don’t scare me like that man, there could be anything out there!”

“Sorry,” came the meek reply. “But we need to get away from the ship.”

Squinting in the light from the helmet, Shiro looked a bit more ominous than before, and that’s saying something when he was already roughly twice or maybe even three times Pidge’s size and with the added length of his fin, made him quite intimidating.

A thought struck Pidge, noticing how Shiro had winced in the light. “Wait, can you see in the dark?”

“Kind of, Matt thought that I’m able to see heat rather than actual – ah.” He stopped himself mid-sentence.

“So you really do know my brother.” Murmured Pidge, and then with a little more vigor “Where did you want to go? There’s not a lot of places here that we can sit err-“ she gestured to his lack of bipedalism “or do you have an idea?”

Shiro nodded, “I know a place.” And then reached out to Pidge, but stopped himself halfway.

“But I’ll have to move quickly, so carrying you would be the fastest,” He added, albeit rather awkwardly.

“Oh,” deadpanned Pidge, but quickly regained her composure even with the slight shimmer of wonder at the thought about how _fast_ a merman actually could move. There had yet to be solid evidence since captive ones were mistreated and illegal, plus none of the free ones had truly communicated with humans for any extended period of time.

With a good reason, because Pidge could tell that they were a marvel of wonders just by watching the tacit movements that kept Shiro still in the water.

Swimming a little closer, Shiro hesitantly pulled Pidge into his embrace, seeing as she actually hadn’t given a firm confirmation, he kept his touches to a minimum. One mechanical hand wrapping around Pidge’s middle and the flesh one guiding her to wrap her arms around his neck. “So that you can also hang on,” He’d nervously added.

With the actual chance of travelling and experiencing the speed of a merperson so close, sent a thrill through Pidge’s nerves. _Like c’mon_ , it’s a dream come true.

When attempting to wrap her arms around Shiro to get a hold, she was especially careful not to touch the gills on each side of Shiro’s neck. Thinking that they were probably sore from all the wounds that scit-scattered across them. The signs of abuse, even in the limited light from the helmet, seemed pronounced and made Pidge grind her teeth.

No-one deserved to be hurt in such a way.

Still careful about her hold, Pidge pressed her head against his shoulder as Shiro’s arms held her frame to his. Though the next moment, her depressive thoughts were thrown to the winds with Shiro’s entire body tensed a fraction of a second before his large tail beat through the bodies of water and _moved._

A continuous chant repeated in Pidge’s head as they moved at a much higher pace than she’d ever _seen_ , and much less _experienced_ herself. Oh god, oh god, _oh god heck yes this is amazing_.

With the acceleration of the two of them, Pidge could hardly keep her head facing forward, bodies of water pressing against her form as Shiro swam ahead, set for an unknown destination. While she would’ve been less inclined to trust a total stranger to carry off with her, something about the merman dulled that imminent fear. Maybe it was because Pidge already talk to him before, even if it had been hurried and strained with her internal panic.

And perhaps she shouldn’t try and think so much about it, after all, there was no turning back.

After a long drag of silence between the human and the merman, Shiro adjusted his hold slightly and worriedly asked “How are you holding up, too fast?”

“Nope, I’m fine.” Pidge managed to squeeze out, her face practically pressed against his shoulder at this point, cradled in her arm to withstand the pressure. Though she was mostly physically fine, the weight of gallons of water pounding against her form left her slightly breathless and woozy. “Right as rain.” She added with an afterthought.

“I’m not sure what that means.” Shiro added hesitantly.

“Means; I’m as dipper as a dugong.” Idioms, right. Guess he wouldn’t know of those, being secluded down here and all.

“… not entirely sure about that one either.” A muffled laugh rang from Pidge. Oh god, Lance wouldn’t even be able to hold a straight conversation with this guy, he spoke with too many made-up words. Poor Shiro.

After a few more minutes of companionable silence, Shiro’s speed lessened, crawling close to the speed that Pidge could move at with her flippers.

And suddenly, Pidge realized that they were heading for the surface.

At last, breaking through the last density of water, she saw that they were close to an outcropping, something akin to a tiny island peeking out of the gently lapping waters.

“Wow,” Marvel in her voice, Pidge didn’t know what to say. Bathed in the shimmering moonlight, she saw that there wasn’t a single thing visible from horizon to horizon. A completely desolate place.

“Thought you might appreciate it a little more than being in the dark.” Shiro commented as he swam closer, still safely cradling Pidge to his form. “It’s also a little warmer above water.”

“Huh,” Pidge didn’t really mind being in the water, though her initiate fear of the possible creatures in the depths must’ve shone through her slightly panicky greeting. “Thanks.”

If Pidge had been face to face with Shiro, she would’ve caught the merman with a slight smile on his lips.

Helping her hoist herself up onto the rock, Shiro was careful of not touching her more than necessary. Even with the odd skin-ship that Hunk and Lance almost forcibly got her used to, the passiveness and caution Shiro treated her with almost weirded her out more than the previous.

Pidge didn’t like it. But how others treated her was something she’d never be able to truly change.

Though being seen as fragile was rather irritating.

Nevertheless, Pidge shot those thoughts out of her head as she shuffled her rump around on the rock, trying to sit comfortably and then removed her helmet. The tool unnecessary and rather odd to wear above water. It also seemed kind of rude to keep hiding behind it. 

At the sight of her short hair, Shiro’s eyes widened slightly. “You’re not Matt.”

“Duh,” scoffed Pidge, running a chilled hand through her still-dry hair.

“No, no.” Shiro quickly added, his tail breaking the surface slightly as he moved to hoist himself up onto the rocky surface so that they would be more face-to-face. “I mean- ah. You’re…” He let out an awkward laugh, rubbing the small pinch of hair on his forehead with two fingers. “I’m not making a very good case of myself, am I?”

“Nope.” Deadpanned Pidge, though she couldn’t make herself hold any malice towards the large merman. “But it’s ok, it must be a little weird to see me and not Matt.”

“That’s not- erhm,” again, he pinched a few strands of hair between his fingers in a mimic of a nervous gesture. In the limited light that came from the moon towering above them, Pidge noticed that there were miniscule patches of scales overlapping skin close to the joint where his talons started to jut out from.

Shiro let out a rough laugh, “I’m sorry Pidge, I didn’t mean to see you as anything else than yourself. But my _mind_ – it keeps telling me that it’s still back there. It’s a little off-putting, considering everything.”

“Hey, it's fine.” Pidge hesitantly reached out, her hand hovering a second above the surface of his prosthetic before making contact. “I’ve been a real ass earlier, this time we can just get all buddy-buddy instead of me trying to dig forcibly around in stuff that probably isn’t good for you. Sounds okay?” Her tone of voice was still a little emotional, a little rough around the edges, not yet really kind. Kindness wasn’t something she exercised very often when living in a male-dominated environment.

“Yeah,” Shiro seemed to relax a little, tension that Pidge hadn’t noticed at all dissipating from his limbs. “Yeah sounds good.” His eyes hadn’t met once with hers during the conversation, but now the corners were slightly crinkled as he smiled. His dorsal fin peeking out from his back and slightly bopped up and down over the surface of the water as his fluke slightly moved under the guise of the darkened water.

“So Shiro, got any good stories?” Pidge questioned, prodding very gently at the subject of his association with her family.

“Stories?”

“Yep, about Matt. Didn’t see a whole lot to him once they went out onto the sea, kinda wished that I could’ve been with him in that time. All of his awkward years without me being able to tease him about it.” In all honesty, Matt had been close to exiting those years of lanky-awkwardness and adjustment of coordination according to the increased height.

Still, he’d been both a genius as a researcher and ever the nagging big brother towards his sister that was just starting to sneak into the hormone-increasing time period of her life.

Another one of those hesitant laughs rang out into the calm air. The sincere question of ‘ _How long did you know them?’_ hung behind the light-hearted inquiry, which Pidge knew that Shiro had undoubtedly caught onto but had seemingly decided not to let bother him.

As Shiro leaned forward into his elbows, his eyes again crinkled with muted amusement as he started recounting various escapades that Matt had executed while Shiro had been around to see them. Getting bitten by a specimen, leaning a little too far over the bow to watch Shiro interact with a group of friendly dolphins and then ending up falling into the water below when startled by an exceptionally curious mammal.

The tales continued for a little while, Pidge didn’t have any mechanics that was capable to measuring time with her, but the calming deep voice that kept talking distracted her from any worries. Just for a little while, she permitted herself to just sit and listen fondly as she imagined the laughing face of her brother, undoubtedly caught between glee and pain from being bumped around by over-excited dolphins.

But, as the last syllables quieted in the still-dark atmosphere, Pidge watched that with the ending of the story, something else had risen in Shiro’s mind. His face slightly contorting in pain and his flesh-hand reaching over to scratch his talons slightly over the metal between junctions of the other.

“Hey, hey” Pidge called out, trying to get his attention away from where he undoubtedly was hovering on the border of grief-stricken memories and reality. When it didn’t work, she leaning forward on the rocky surface, careful of not slipping. “Shiro?”

With the call of his name, Shiro somewhat snapped away from the layer of reality that he’d been undoubtedly caught on. “Sorry.” His pupils were slightly blown, blinking a few times before he realized what he was doing. Removing his gaze from Pidge’s, he released his arm, instead rubbing soothing circles against the metal.

A wince bore down on his features, and Pidge wanted to soothe him, even with the little experience she held. “It’s okay, really. I’m just glad that you’re willing to talk to me.” She sent him, what she hoped to be, a reassuring smile.

That called a huff from Shiro, “I could say the same.”

Cocking her head slightly, _that_ at the very least, didn’t seem to make much sense in her head. Why wouldn’t she?

“How I attacked you, I wouldn’t be surprised that you’d just gone on with searching for Sam and Matt on your own,” he laughed at that, but there was little conviction behind it, “A damaged orca, what help could I even give?”

The question was rhetorical, undoubtedly. But Pidge responded to it, like she’d done before when Hunk had fallen into the deeper end of his depression, slowly reaching forward and brushing her fingers against his cheek. Touch, she’d learned, kept their attention on the _now_ , kept the demons away just a little bit easier. But it wasn’t universal, so she kept rapt attention on how Shiro was reaction to her.

“Shiro,” She spoke softly, repeating the same things that Hunk had needed when he’d sat and cowed away in his bed, crying alone until she found him. “Shiro, you’re not damaged. Not second-hand. You’ve already given much more than I could ever give back.”

Shiro’s lips pinched together, holding back words of opposition. But Pidge carried on as if she hadn’t noticed.

“Look, I don’t know you very well yet. So obviously I don’t have any right to have a say on what you should think of yourself, but really Shiro. You’re strong.” When Shiro then looked up, she made sure to catch his chin. “You came through all of that- _whatever_ it was, and you didn’t run. You’re not the only one that expected to be left alone in that darkness all night. I wouldn’t have judged you if you did, honestly.”

With that, Pidge released him, but kept her gaze interlocked with his. A slight smile worked its way onto her lips. “Humans are pretty shitty; you have all the reason in the world not to want to talk to me.”

It took a few more moment of Shiro silently gazing at Pidge before he seemingly finished working out whatever battle he’d waged in his head. Still not saying a word, he reached up to help heft Pidge off the surface of the rock and back into the water.

A little unsure what was going to happen next, Pidge just kept quiet and tried to shimmy down without getting her binder caught in the small crevices. When finding herself with only her shoulders above the surface, she grabbed and put the helmet back on, with Shiro supporting her weight all the while.

As Pidge readied themselves for, well, whatever Shiro had in mind at the given moment.

Turned out it was a hug. His arms pressing Pidge closer to him and his face burying in the crook of her neck.

An exasperated “Thank you.” Sounded by Pidge’s ear, “I’ll help you find them in any way that I can. I promise.”

“Aw, you don’t have to play all self-sacrificial for me Shiro,” There was a hint of teasing in her tone, “We’ll figure something out, as long as we keep going.”

A nod moved against her skin, arms squeezing slightly around her middle before loosening and permitting her to resume the position they’d taken when travelling out here.

Readying herself for the trip, Pidge couldn’t help but worry about Shiro. How did he manage in daytime? Where would he go when she eventually had to sail back to shore?

Who dared lay a hand on such a gentle soul?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pidge is the biggest trooper and somebody needs to try and keep the others together, so ofc she also takes Shiro under her wing. Never a dull day in the life of Pidge Gunderson :v
> 
> Hope ya'll liked!!

**Author's Note:**

> You can always find me at my tumbler [right here](http://costumebleh.tumblr.com/) so come shoot me a message if you wanna talk!


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